


Aftermath - 6 Days Out - Silver

by serendipityxxi



Series: The Void [9]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Crocker Trouble, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 20:31:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17649386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: The first post The War At Home Aftermath story: Duke finally has something turn out in his favor.





	Aftermath - 6 Days Out - Silver

The day the FEMA guys finally show up to start putting Haven back to rights, Duke wakes up to Audrey and Nathan’s voices talking quietly across the bedroom. The sun is just barely peeking through the sheers covering Nathan’s windows and Duke doesn’t have a reason to be up this early. He doesn’t have to go talk to the suits in any capacity (the perks of being a pirate, he reminds himself), but his lovers don’t understand the concept of letting a man sleep. He reminds himself they’re not used to sharing such close quarters and forgives them, taking a moment for a long stretch now that he’s the only one in the bed.

Duke rubs a hand down his face, waking up a bit more. Audrey’s already halfway dressed and she doesn’t have to talk to the feds. The problem with Audrey is that once she’s up, she’s up; there’s no lazing about in bed when she has a whole day to go conquer, so Duke has learned to do his best not to wake her until he has to be up himself.

She stands in the shaft of sunlight falling over the closet in just her bra and jeans, hands on her hips staring down her wardrobe as if daring one of the shirts to take her on. He takes the opportunity to admire the gilded curve of her spine and the shining fall of her hair and doesn’t give a damn how much of a schmuck that makes him.

She’s gorgeous and formidable and she’s chosen him to share her bed. If that doesn’t give a guy license to be a little moony eyed, what does?

She decides the blue henley must be giving her the most lip, because she pulls it out of the wardrobe and tosses it across the foot of the bed next to the camisole that was probably looking shiftiest when she opened the drawer.

She glances up from the shirts and spots him still blinking sleepy-eyed at her, and she smiles, just a small, surprised little _oh, you’re awake, hi_ , smile and it makes Duke’s heart turn over in his chest.

“Didn’t mean to wake you,” she says, padding over in her bare feet to peck him hello.

And Duke- still half-asleep after four days of snow enforced house arrest where they had nothing to do but entertain themselves- can’t stop himself from reaching out and wrapping his arms around the warm, velvet-soft skin of her waist, pulling her down with an undignified squeak and then a laugh so he can bury his nose in the space between her neck and her shoulder and drop a loud, squeaky kiss there.

“Liar,” he says, letting her up, eyes dancing. “You can just admit you were bored with Nathan’s bellyaching about lying to the feds this morning.”

“Haven’t said one word about that!” comes the indignant response from the bathroom.

Duke flicks his gaze to Audrey, who rolls her eyes emphatically.

 _Talk to him,_ she mouths, and then turns to tug on her tank.

Duke heaves himself out of bed and stretches for the ceiling and then down to touch his toes. He takes his time coming back up, letting Audrey get a chance to enjoy the view while Nathan natters on in the bathroom, anxiety coming off him like smoke from a broken muffler. Nathan just needs to talk it out, Duke knows. The more he worries now the smoother he’ll be later. It’s not like there wasn’t a cataclysmic event that hit their town, they’re not scamming anybody out of anything they don’t deserve. FEMA’s set up specifically to deal with natural disasters and the aftermath.

In the meantime Duke hitches up his boxers and goes to lounge in the bathroom doorway. “Did he ever tell you about the time he lied to the principal, the vice principal and the four teachers grilling him about how someone hijacked the PA system to play ‘I’m too sexy’ at random intervals on the last Monday of our senior year?”

Nathan squawks in indignation again. “Duke-” he warns.

But Duke grins and keeps talking to Audrey. “Straightest face you ever saw. I would’ve believed him myself if I hadn’t been the one who helped him rig up the secondary control panel.”

Audrey hoots with laughter. “The whole school must have been rioting!”

In the bathroom, Nathan has nothing to say for himself, but there’s a smug little grin playing under the shaving cream covering the lower half of his face.

“Geoff got suspended for dancing on the teacher’s desk the second time it played,” he confesses to Audrey.

“Geoff got suspended for taking off his shirt and flinging it across the class stripper style, the second time it played,” Duke corrects with an answering smile, his chest tight with how warm and fond that proud little grin makes him feel. He’s missed this Nathan. He still misses Geoff.

Duke clears his throat and turns back to Audrey.

“Not to mention the fact that he lied to the chief of police every night for a month when we were in eleventh grade.”

“Had to,” Nathan protests then. “He’d never’ve let you sleep here ‘f he’d known!”

“What’s this? You two shacked up in high school and I’m just hearing about it now?” Audrey demands, poking her head around the doorway to waggle wicked eyebrows at Nathan. He huffs a soft laugh at her exaggeration and goes back to shaving his face, those long fingers moving deftly over skin they can feel again. Duke has no idea how he managed it when his Trouble was turned on.

When he looks over Audrey’s still wearing her favorite _answer the question_ face, but Duke just smiles and shakes his head. It’s not something he wants to go into right now. “Needed a warm place to crash, Nathan was kind enough to offer.” Audrey, to her credit, doesn’t push, so he adds, “Though I do remember warming his bed a few times that January.” He earns a laugh from Audrey, and what he’s sure is a blush from Nathan despite the shaving cream in the way.

Duke leaves out the part where his mother spent their money on booze instead of paying the power bill, and then skipped town right when the company cut it off, leaving Duke without heat in the coldest January of his life. If Nathan hadn’t snuck him in under the chief’s nose he’s not sure Garland wouldn’t have been called out to investigate a Duke popsicle that year.

“You,” Nathan points with the razor, “stop digging for scandalous high school stories,” he orders Audrey.

“And you,” Nathan points at Duke this time, “stop helping,” he growls, blue eyes squinted in exasperation.

Audrey and Duke chuckle as he bends to wash off the rest of the shaving cream.

When he stands up, patting at his face with the towel Duke hands him, he’s still scowling but Duke can’t help his smile. It’s been a while since he’s seen a clean-shaven Nathan Wuornos. Duke’s fond of the stubble, but this is what the little voice in his head says _his_ Nathan is supposed to look like.

Then it occurs to Duke why Nathan’s shaved, and Duke’s heart stutters a little in his chest.

This is all real.

FEMA is really coming out today.

The nightmare’s over. Things will be getting back to normal soon.

Don’t get him wrong, Duke’s ecstatic at the idea of somebody besides Nathan, Audrey and Dwight shouldering the responsibility for this whole damn town. He might not like the government or the feds but he’s grateful people will start getting the help they need to rebuild.

It’s over.

It’s really over.

But... what does that mean for him?

It opens up a whole world of possibilities and that- that is really the problem here. He’s done his best not to worry about it while they were snowed in, done his best to push the dozens of questions hounding him to the back of his mind, but now they all come clamoring back.

Nathan opens his mouth and something in his expression makes Duke realize he’s spiralling too, about to go back down the same path, worrying about lying to the feds, and from the light showering into the bedroom it’s getting late.

“Listen to me, Nate.” He takes the two steps across the bathroom to get his hands on Nathan’s face, thumbs coasting over those smooth cheeks. “You got this,” he tells him, infusing as much warmth and belief as he can into his voice. He does. He has this. Duke’s not worried.

Something in Nathan’s eyes softens, his eyebrows relaxing, and it makes Duke grin to see it. He kisses him quick and reassuring and for a moment, everything is fine, it’s normal. It’s a morning like dozens of others they’ll have.

Then, Nathan lets out a hiss of pain and everything changes.

Duke drops his hands. “What is it?” he’s asking even as the blur of red on his fingers is drawing his attention.

Dimly, he can hear Nathan saying “Musta nicked myself, didn’t even feel it,” but it sounds like it’s coming from miles and miles away. Duke’s eyes are so wide in surprise they feel cold but the discomfort barely registers, the wave of horror overwhelming it. The tiny, quarter inch streak of blood on the tip of his middle finger disappears before his staring eyes.

Absorbed into his skin.

“Duke!” Audrey’s alarmed cry comes from those same miles and miles away as he feels the first tingles of what Troubled blood does to his system.

“Your eyes!” Nathan exclaims, and Duke wants to shake him. Of course his eyes. Of course his eyes have changed color. That’s what happens. Why didn’t he have an escape plan for this? Why did he come in here? He’s trapped in the bathroom, stuck between the two people he loves most, and the Trouble that makes him a mindless monster has just been triggered.

At least now he knows what he should do. He’s known it all along, to be honest. If only he can pull it together one last time-

Nathan’s hands close around Duke’s shoulders and shake him. Hard. Without an ounce of fear in his entire brainless body. “Look at your eyes!” he insists, grabbing Duke’s chin even as Duke pulls away. Duke doesn’t want to hurt him, he tries to keep the full force of his power out of the fight as Nathan wrestles him around trying to get him to face the mirror.

And somehow, even though Nathan shouldn’t be able to overpower him, he gets turned around. He catches sight of himself in the square mirror over the sink and the image stops him cold. He turns to the mirror fully now, hands braced on the counter as he leans forward to stare into his own face, his own unshuttered expression of raw terror and… and silver eyes. Silver. His eyes are...

“Look at your eyes, Duke,” Audrey says, warm little hand on his elbow. She says it with awe, amazement. Duke glances down at her even as he lifts his hand to his face, not sure he can believe what he’s seeing.

“They’re silver,” she reassures him.

“Silver?” he asks and he feels like an idiot, he can see them clearly his own damn self.

“Silver,” Nathan answers, squeezing his shoulder, his hand warm and solid when Duke feels like he’s gone cold and floaty all over.

“Silver,” Duke repeats, and then he’s sitting down hard on the edge of the bathtub, dropping his face in his hands as he shakes and shakes and shakes, relief pouring through every vein in his body like a flood. He feels almost as high as when he soaked up that entire blood puddle that was trying to kill Nathan at the station last year.

His eyes are silver again.

He feels himself shake harder.

Audrey’s on her knees in front of him, her hands smoothing over his hair and Nathan’s sitting on the side of the tub with him, arm around his bare back, holding him steady and they’re talking, they’re saying things, things like _how_ and _what’s happening_ and _are you okay_ and _does anything hurt_ and he should answer them. He should at least answer the last two.

He looks up and the world goes sideways for a moment. He puts his head back between his knees and begins to count, to take long, slow breaths to give himself back control. Nathan’s hand rubs soothing strokes across his back while Audrey coaches “breathe, just breathe,” at him.

He does. He breathes.

The alarm in the bedroom goes off, and Duke knows Nathan set it so he’d be out the door on time. He needs to not be late. So he forces his head up and nods at Nathan. “I’m fine. Okay? I’m good,” he says and for once he means it, for once he feels like a weight’s been lifted.

“Go, finish getting dressed. You gotta get out of here.”

“Duke,” Nathan argues.

Duke smiles and shakes his head. He feels light-headed but in a good way now. He reaches out and pulls Nathan into a kiss. “I’m serious.” he says. “I’m okay. I don’t know how…” His voice trails off in wonder and Nathan traces a thumb under his left eye tenderly. “But I’m okay,” Duke assures him.

“This is good,” Nathan tells him gruffly, rocks his shoulder to underscore his words. “Really good.” He says it like if he means it enough it’ll be true.

“Yeah.” Duke finds himself agreeing with him. “Yeah I think it is.”

Nathan doesn’t move, stays where he is, staring at Duke, though Duke’s sure his eyes have resumed their natural color by now. Duke meets his gaze, and for once he doesn’t know what to say. They just stare at each other, amazed and shocked, happiness starting to creep in.

Nathan’s mouth quirks up at the corner and Duke can’t help but respond with the same.

_This really is something good._

Finally Duke shoves Nathan’s shoulder once more. “Go. You’re going to be late.”

Audrey’s hand comes into view, squeezes Nathan’s arm. “I’ll stay with him,” she promises.

Duke should protest that he doesn’t need babysitting but he’s not sure he doesn’t.

Nathan looks from Duke to Audrey, obviously torn, but he nods and gets up to finish getting dressed. He stops in the doorway before he can actually leave the bathroom. “This is a good thing,” he tells Duke again.

“It is,” Duke agrees, the words coming faster now.

“We’ll celebrate when I get home,” Nathan says, managing a half smile through the worry.

“I’ll make tacos,” Duke promises.

“Tacos?” Audrey protests.

“Tacos are good enough for when I come back from the dead but not this?” Nathan argues and Duke barks out a sharp, startled laugh that makes even Audrey chuckle.

“Tacos it is,” she agrees, waving a hand as if to say _of course_.

Nathan goes into the bedroom and Duke looks to Audrey, so full of concern and questions and… he doesn’t know what to say.

“I… I need a minute,” he finally confesses. He’s not trying to push her away, they’ve come too far for that now but he just- he really needs a minute.

She gives him a soft smile. “I’m right in there when you’re ready,” she promises and gets to her feet.

Duke smiles at her, warm and full of gratitude.

He puts his head back down when she leaves, closes his eyes and buries his face in his hands. He can feel his lashes brushing his palms as his brain tick, tick, ticks over what just happened.

He can hear Audrey and Nathan talking quietly in the bedroom. Then the soft thuds of their footfalls and the opening and slamming of the front door. She doesn’t immediately come back to the bathroom either. Duke hears her start to putter around in the kitchen and he slides off the edge of the tub to sit on the floor. She’s giving him the space and time he’s asked for even though he knows it must be killing her not to ask him the hundred questions that are probably on the tip of her tongue.

His heart is almost back to its normal rhythm when she knocks on the doorframe. He can smell before he even looks up she’s got coffee with her.

“Thought you might want a cup?” she offers.

Duke shakes his head. For once he doesn’t want anything. No stimulant or alcohol. But he pats the space in front of him, inviting her to sit. She puts the coffee on the counter by the sink and settles cross legged on the bath mat in front of him. Her blue eyes are full of questions and hope.

Duke leans forward and kisses her too, more of that unsaid gratitude on his lips.

“I’m okay,” he says pulling away, even as she asks, “Are you really, okay?”

They laugh and Duke takes her hands in both of his, watches the way they disappear, hidden by his longer fingers. “I’m good,” he tells her and smiles, “really, really good.”

Audrey frees a hand to run her fingers over the side of his face, and again through his hair, pushing it back off his forehead.

“I’m glad,” she says quietly, sincerely. Fiercely.

Duke smiles, surprised by the quick, sharp sting of tears.

“I just-” Audrey smiles helplessly and tries again, tears glittering in her own eyes. “How?” she asks.

“I’ve felt… different since the big showdown with old Voldemort,” Duke begins, not sure how to explain. “Not bad different.” He pauses for a long moment here. “Closer to balanced?” is the best he can do to describe it. “I chalked it up to relief that he was gone, that things were slowly being fixed...” Duke shakes his head. “I guess it wasn’t just that.” He doesn’t have a good answer.

“But William said- In the Void. He said that you were overdosed on aether, that’s why-” her hand comes up to gesture at her own eyes. “When you absorbed so much of Croatoan’s blood…” her voice trails off. _So much of the aether,_ they both know she means.

“I think maybe that’s what helped, actually?” Duke tells her haltingly.  “I think William was wrong. That exploding all the Troubles…” it’s Duke’s turn for his voice to trail off. They don’t really talk about that, it’s still a sore subject. “It meant I didn’t have enough aether in the old Crocker aether vault and that’s why... “

“Why you reacted so strongly to it,” Audrey puzzles out. “Why absorbing so much of it that night with Croatoan-” She can’t seem to finish her sentence but Duke doesn’t make her.

“Yeah,” he agrees, rubbing his thumb comfortingly over Audrey’s hand. It’s trembling in his grip now. They haven’t talked about that night in detail and he doesn’t particularly want to, either.

She looks up at him. Her lower lip is trembling too. “I was sure I’d killed you that night,” she confesses.

“Audrey-” He reaches out but she resists.

“No. I shouldn’t have put you in that position…”

“Audrey, hey.” He chucks her gently under her chin. “I made that decision. It was my choice. And it worked, didn’t it? If I hadn’t been there.” He leaves the rest of the sentence unsaid, they can both fill in the blanks. It would have been a hell of a lot worse than black-eyed Duke still running amok among them if he hadn’t been there. This is just an unexpected side benefit.

Audrey nods and gives him a half-hearted smile, runs her thumbs under his eyes again. Duke tugs on her wrist and this time she goes into his arms, tucks her head under his chin so they’re sitting with her between his bent knees. She settles her bony little shoulders against his chest and he smiles over her head, wraps his arms around her waist. She crosses her own over his, holding them there.

“Are you still worried?” she asks point blank, once she’s settled. “About your Trouble? About what you could do if it’s triggered?” she clarifies.

Duke doesn’t miss how she is essentially sitting on him so he cannot run from this conversation, but he’s glad she at least isn’t making him look her in the eye. He doesn’t lie to her as he admits, “I was. This morning…” Duke sucks in a long, shaky breath, “this morning I was fucking terrified,” he tells her.

Audrey squeezes his hand. And Duke is amazed again that fate has, for once, turned up on his side.

“And now?” she prompts.

“Now…” Duke thinks carefully. He’s essentially back where he started with this Trouble.

The blood high. The threat of addiction.

He thinks of what this Trouble did to his father.

He thinks of what this Trouble did to Wade.

“Now, I know... I’m not my father, or my brother,” he says carefully. The grief here is still fresh. He doesn’t mean to speak ill of the dead but he _isn’t_ either of them. “They gave in to the need. They bought into the idea of death as the only way to end things. They thought they were heroes.” Duke shakes his head, shakes away the memory of his eight year old fingers stitching up a cut on the back of his father’s arm, shakes away the memory of Wade’s voice hissing about their _gift._

“When I was all black-eyed,” Duke waves a hand out to gesture at his face, “even the first time, there was still a part of me that was horrified at what I was doing, that knew it was wrong, that fought the compulsion to go after more and more aether. The need then…” he takes a deep breath and Audrey rubs his arm in comfort, “it was so much _more_ \- so much _worse_ than when I was silver-eyed.” He shakes his head though she can’t see it. “Now, I guess I have a whole different set of benchmarks for what I can resist.” He laughs softly into her hair and she chuckles along with him.

“No,” he says finally, having considered her question thoroughly. “I’ll never be at peace with this Trouble. Never see death as a gift, but I’m not worried I won’t be able to con-” Duke shocks himself when his voice breaks on the last word. He clears his throat before he continues, “control myself. I’m not worried I’ll lose my-” his voice cracks again but he keeps going because he has to get the words out, he wants to say them, “myself, who I really am to it anymore.” he finishes huskily and swipes at his eyes in what he hopes is a surreptitious manner.

Audrey turns anyway, kneeling up in his hold to look him in the eyes now and there are tears streaming down her face too. She swipes her thumbs under his eyes once, twice. She opens her mouth and then closes it, opens it again and then just wraps herself around him and clings fiercely.

Even Audrey Parker, whose power is in her voice, has run out of words in the face of such an unexpected boon.

Duke drops his face into her shoulder and holds on.

When they finally get off the bathroom floor it’s after ten and Duke hasn’t even brushed his freakin’ teeth yet. His butt is numb from sitting on the tiles but his heart is lighter than it’s been in months, years even.

When Nathan gets home that evening they have tacos like Duke promised.

And when they go to sleep Duke slyly drops in a hint to remind Nathan he promised to buy them a bigger bed. He's still not sure they can make this work- simpler relationships between simpler people have certainly failed before- but he's more sure tonight than he was last night. And if they can, they're definitely going to need a bigger bed.


End file.
